As the legendary thrash heroes grow older and
older, each new album becomes a test of will­power and endurance: can they
still make it? won't it feel too embarrassing? is tinnitus finally setting in?
It's not as if a band like Anthrax really has a choice of switching to acoustic
folk or didgeridoo music, even if an ethnic reworking of ʽCaught In A Moshʼ, if
done authentically enough, might be curious.

Anyway, the good news: Anthrax are still
together, featuring more or less the classic lineup — only lead guitarist Rob
Caggiano has been replaced by Jon Donais, but he was never part of the classic
lineup anyway, so good luck to him in Volbeat or whatever other Scandinavian
metal band he'd wish to join. Technically, the rhythm section remains tight,
and Joey is still Joey, keeping a youthful spirit at the age of 55 (which we
now know is not that hard to do —
hey, my own memories of a 55-year old Mick Jagger make him seem like a
youngster at the time). Even better, though even more subjective, news: it seems to me that this new bunch of songs
is some­what better written than the disappointing Worship Music. Better riffs, catchier choruses, it all kind of makes
a bit more musical sense.

But everything comes at a price, and one other
definite feel I get (among with quite a few other critics and fans, it seems)
is that For All Kings is somewhat
lacking in energy. Where Worship Music
tried too hard to sound like classic Anthrax, this one does not try enough
(yes, I know we amateur writers are hard to please, but what can you do?
Writing about Anthrax albums is almost impossible without comparing them to
each other and to that one
classic-ideal-immaculate An­thrax LP that they never really recorded). For
starters, most of the songs are too slow: there is not a single proper brutal
lightning-speed thrasher to remind you of this band's ultimate powers. Far be
it from me to demand that all their
songs be like that — but a couple would still have been nice. Instead, we get
way too many tunes that sound like «regular» metal, or hard rock, or even
pop-a-roll: not really bad or anything, but not exactly something that we need
an Anthrax for.

Second, the older they get, the more they tend
to sermonize: most of the songs here carry social or generally moralistic
messages, ranging from the individuality-acclaiming title track to ʽEvil Twinʼ
which condemns the Charlie Hebdo
killers (because, as we all know, Anthrax are espe­cially popular among Islamist terrorists and ISIL leaders, and
whatever Scott Ian tells them to do, they will execute instantly to wild cries
of «Anthrax akbar!»). Again, even if there's nothing par­ticularly new that
they might tell us, it wouldn't be such a problem if one didn't get the feeling
that the message is occasionally more important than the execution, and also
because Joey Bel­ladonna simply might not be the best voice to deliver these serious messages — even after all
these years, I still keep seeing him in a sarcastic haze, playing the fool a
little. To be Moses or Jonah, he'd probably need extra vocal powers sent from
above, and if they didn't arrive thirty years earlier, it's useless to wait for
them now.

That said, I honestly enjoy bits and pieces
here — even stuff like ʽThis Battle Chose Usʼ, with its singalong pop chorus
that arrogantly bridges the gap between Anthrax and Bon Jovi, is endowed with
gutsy riffage, and I'm all in favour of the sacrilegious transition between the
more thrash-like verses and the clearly pop metal chorus and backwards. The
title track starts out almost accap­pella style, as if Joey, inspired by the
title, were going to deliver us an epic Anglo-Saxon ballad from ye olde times —
fortunately, it picks up steam very soon, but then nothing about the song
really is as interesting as this contrast between the introduction and the main
riff. And the riff itself is nowhere near as tough as the one on ʽBreathing
Lightningʼ — now here, after a boring
epic intro, we get a monstrous variation on the ʽCaught In A Moshʼ riff that
almost sounds like classic Anthrax. And then it, too, gets betrayed with an
epic «melodic» chorus that turns this band into something it ought not to be. Belladonna
singing in an operatic tone? He's neither Rob Hal­ford nor Bruce Dickinson, why
should he bother? (Oh and, by the way, note them cop the riff of ʽThe Song
Remains The Sameʼ for a bit in the mid-section).

In short, this is Anthrax all right, but an
aging Anthrax, with slightly (or maybe seriously) diminished powers of con­viction,
but an ever-increasing level of social consciousness that drives them to taking
themselves more seriously than ever before. But time is a bitch — as is evident,
for instance, from the way less than stellar live rendition of ʽCaught In A
Moshʼ that is included as a bonus track on the expanded edition of the album,
with Ian messing up the classic bassline and the entire band messing up the
playful call-and-response harmonies on the chorus. This per­formance might
serve as an allegory for the entire new album — if you think I'm dreaming
things up and this current live incarnation goes every bit as strong as it used
to, you'll probably also love For All
Kings, but... well, I am not suggesting that the band retire or anything,
but yes, they are getting old,
there's no getting around it, and I feel as if they have not chosen the ideal
way to adapt to it. Although, frankly speaking, I have no idea what that ideal
way would be, so it's damned if you do, damned if you don't all the way. At
least the old pals are still together, and there's always something to be said
about long-lasting musical friendship.